General Questions

When are we going to see a miniature or ship control sheet for the Excalibur (Victory-class) from Crusade?

This is our #1 question. The answer: We don't know. The problem is, our license covers only Babylon 5, not Crusade. Even though there was a brief mention of the Excalibur's ship class in Season 5, that does not give us permission to use the ship in our game unless we purchase an expensive new license covering the Crusade series. Now, the announcement of a new movie (Legend of the Rangers) as the pilot for a new series only further complicates matters. Essentially, we are waiting to find out what happens with the new series before we make any attempt to modify our license.

Why haven't we seen any Interstellar Alliance products?

We've had plenty of things to do within the timeframe of the Babylon 5 show without delving into what's going on years afterward. The unfinished storyline of Crusade also puts us in a bind, and of course, anything in the Crusade era falls under that pesky contract difficulty (see previous question). The possibility of a new series set in the IA timeframe also limits our ability to explore that era until the show has covered it. The "Alliance Contact" product is currently on hold for this reason.

Core Rules Questions

Where are the White Star counters?

Quite simply, we forgot them . We put some extras in the Earth Wars supplement.

The Nova description says it can carry Thunderbolts, but the T-bolt description basically says on the Omega can do so. Which is correct?

The Nova page did not get updated correctly before going to press. Novas cannot carry T-bolts. (Another error in this test is the statement that Dilgar era Novas carried pulse cannons. In fact, they carried medium lasers.)

The Thunderbolt page says its missiles have a range of 6, but the rules say a range of 10. Which is right?

Range 10 is correct.

Missiles have a +3 bonus to hit. Is this in addition to the missile rack's fire control?

Yes, although the rack cannot provide its fire control if the ship loses LOS to the target after movement. The missile will still get its +3 to hit, however.

Can ELINT ships loan close combat EW?

No.

Can a gravitic ship pivot and roll at the same time?

Yes.

Can I make a called shot with a ballistic weapon?

Yes, as long as you are willing to suffer the penalty to hit. (Basically, instead of telling the weapon to hit the big ship over there, you tell it to home on a specific tiny spot on the hull.) If you miss, you miss completely!

The light fusion cannon on the master weapon list shows 2 guns instead of 3. Also, only the gatling pulse cannon lists an intercept rating. Are these errors?

The fusion cannon is a generic chart, so the number of guns doesn't matter (actually we shouldn't have listed the number of guns at all). The intercept rating of all fighter weapons is -1 unless otherwise noted, so leaving them out is not an error.

Shuttles can ram, but there is no ramming factor listed. How do we calculate this?

Sum their structure and armor values. For example, the Earth shuttle (10 hits and 1 armor) has a ramming factor of 11, while the Lamprey breaching pod (18 hits and 3 armor) has a factor of 21.

No description of the Minbari EP gun is provided. How should the description read?

Electro-Pulse Gun:

The electro-pulse gun, or EP gun, is used by Minbari ships to disable small craft so they can be more easily captured. It fires a powerful electromagnetic burst which can short out the systems on fighters and shuttles. Larger units are unaffected by this weapon, as they contain more shielding to prevent this sort of occurrence.

The firing player can select any desired fighter in a flight as the EP gun's target, and can wait until all other weapons have been fired at that flight before making this choice (this allows the Minbari player to choose a fighter not already damaged earlier in the turn, if he wishes). If it hits, the target unit is disabled and automatically drops out at the end of the turn.

Note that this weapon is extremely short-ranged, and thus is useful only against fighters that come too close to the ship.

The EP gun suffers from the "range reduced" critical hit like any other weapon, but if it takes a "damage reduced" critical hit, there is a chance it will have no effect when it hits. On a hit it scores later in the scenario, roll 1d6 and subtract 2 for every "damage reduced" critical the weapon has suffered. If the result is less than 1, it does not affect the target fighter (otherwise it forces drop-out as noted above).

This is an electromagnetic-class weapon, but as it does no damage, it has no official "mode" per se.

Narn-Centauri War Update Pack Questions

What's up with the misplaced turn costs on the two ships at the center of the book?

The print shop had to transfer our Illustrator files to the Macintosh, and in doing so, the tabs on those two pages (but, strangely enough, not on any other page) were misprinted.

My copy of the update pack has two copies of a couple of the ships, and none of a couple of others. What can I do about this?

Our print shop apparently put together at least a few dozen misprinted copies. If you have one, send it back to us (AOG, PO Box 31571, Dayton OH 45437-0571). We will replace it free of charge.

If I use a burst beam on a fighter flight and then hit it with some other weapon, such as a pulse cannon, are the dropped-out fighters eligible to be hit?

The firing player uses his weapons in any order he chooses. If a fighter is force-dropped by a burst beam fired early in the turn, later weapons cannot hit it. In the case of a pulse cannon, he does not have to announce the targets of the pulse cannon until it actually shoots, so he can see the results of his burst beams before picking his targets from the remaining fighters (in fact, a force-dropped fighter cannot be targeted, even if you wanted to).

The Thentus has 12 engine power but the aft thruster has only a 6 rating - is this an error?

Yes. It should have a 12 rating. The original ship had 2 thrusters, which were combined in this edition (except we forgot to fix the thrust rating number, obviously).

The rear to-hit chart of the Sulust shows twin arrays, but there are none back there. What should the chart be?

There had been some TAs in the rear, but we moved them forward at the last minute. The chart should say 1-6 Main Thrust, 7-8 Guardian Array, 9-18 Aft Struct, 19-20 Primary Hit.

Earth Wars Questions

The rules list the anti-fighter missile as having a +2 bonus versus fighters, but the table says it has a +3 rating. Which is correct?

+3 is correct. Note that the MW missile does NOT get this bonus for its submunitions.

The basic missile (and other std. range variants) are shown in the Ship Book as max range 15, but are shown on chart on page 13 as max range 20 - which is correct?

The chart is correct. The ranges were all updated as they were determined to be too short, but these changes did not propagate to the Ship Book as they should have.

When missiles are fired, must their type be announced?

No. However, they must be recorded. Write them down, then reveal their payloads when they hit. If they miss, you do not need to reveal what they were.

Does the Reload Rack suffer magazine criticals? Can it transfer missiles out of a destroyed rack?

Yes, it suffers magazine criticals (which would be very, very bad). It can transfer missiles from a destroyed rack provided that rack did not suffer a magazine crit of its own - this would have destroyed any missiles therein.

Does the Poseidon provide its init. bonus to allied, non-EA vessels?

Yes. However, it provides this bonus because of Minbari-style C&C technology. Thus, the +1 bonus is not cumulative with the built-in +1 bonus all Minbari ships use. Thus, a White Star under the command of a Poseidon would not benefit from the bonus, but a Drazi Sunhawk would.

What is the "maximum X" of the antimatter converter?

There is no maximum X for this weapon.

The Explorer is listed as having Mark-I interceptors, but seems to have Mark-IIs based on the defense rating. Which is correct?

It should have Mark-I interceptors. The defense ratings are in error and should be adjusted.

The ship description states the Poseidon was not built until recently, yet it appears in a scenario in the Earth-Minbari War. Should it be an Avenger instead?

No, the scenario was designed with a Poseidon in mind. This was the original Poseidon prototype (it did not go into full production until many years thereafter). It operates like a normal Poseidon in all ways except that it does not have the +1 initiative bonus.

You fixed the Tinashi, but the arcs of two of the aft weapons on the Rogata Tug cannot be hit according to the Second Edition rules. Is this correct?

Actually, the hit location chart specifically states that the aft guns can be hit by shots to the rear. This should have been explained in the rules better. Because the hit location chart is precise about what can be hit, that overrides the normal arc rule. If you see a similar convention used in a future product, this same general idea will apply.

When do the various missiles become available?

Years of availability: Basic: 2165, Flash: 2229, Heavy: 2225, Antifighter: 2231, Long-range: 2225, Piercing: 2244, HARM: 2248, Multiwarhead: 2256, Chaff: 2230. The basic missile may have been around before the listed date in various forms. EA developed the long-range and heavy missiles at the same time the Sagittarius-B was designed. The piercing missile was designed during the Earth-Minbari War, and the HARM missile came along just after it. The Dilgar produced flash missiles during the Dilgar War, while the Drazi developed antifighter and chaff missiles to use against the Dilgar in that same conflict. The multiwarhead missile is a comparatively recent development.

Showdowns-1 Questions

What's the deal with the Omega in the Earth-Minbari War scenario? I thought Omegas weren't available until well after that war.

You are correct. It should be a Nova Dreadnought. The scenario is "Family Honor."

Is the in-service date of the unrefitted Babylon 5 Station in error?

Yes. It should be 2255. We did the refitted one first, then modified it to make the unrefitted one, and forgot to change the date.

Is the cost of the Raider fighter correct?

In a way. The original Delta-V from the First Edition was armed with bolters, but we redesigned the "bolter" concept for Dilgar War. Then, for purposes of playtesting, we couldn't decide whether to use light particle guns (from the Sentri) or ultralight particle beams (from the Cascor fighter). We wound up putting the ultralight gun on the fighter but not changing its cost. You can try it either way. With the weapon shown on the sheet, the fighter's cost should be 4 points less. With the light particle gun, the listed cost is correct. Let us know which way you think it should be, because when we finally do the Raider supplement, we'll choose one or the other.

Variants-1 Questions

The Hyperion Rail Cruiser shows the usual Hyperion hangar but the hangar box lists its complement as 0 fighters. Which is correct?

It should carry the usual complement of 6 fighters.

The Tethys Light Escort Carrier shows one class-S and one class-A missile rack on the control sheet. What is its correct armament?

Both racks should be class-A.

Showdowns-2 Questions

Are the armor values of 2 on the gravitic shields of the Abbai and Brakiri orbital satellites an error?

The shields should have zero armor. The shield projectors should also have zero armor. Someone in the editing department forgot the main difference between gravitic and EM shields.

Do hits to the gravitic shields on the Abbai Starbase and the Brakiri Techbase ignore the "blanket" armor protection of the section they are mounted in (in effect, armor 0) or do they benefit as do all other systems?

They should ignore the blanket protection, and are considered to have armor 0.

Can multiple shield projectors be used on a single target with cumulative effects?

They are not cumulative. Only the highest projector value would apply.

Can the path of Debris be altered by use of either Gravitic Shifters or Plasma Nets?

No. It's too dispersed.

What is the proper turn cost for the Brakiri Ikorta (page 47)? The data entry shows 1/2 Speed, but the quick-reference bar seems to show 1 x Speed.

1/2 speed. Note: This problem is replicated on the Brikiorta in Variants-2, which went to press before this error was reported.

Do fighter missiles gain the +3 OEW in addition to the fighter's offensive bonus (provided that the target is in arc/the fighter has a navigator and has LOS)? Thus, the EA Thunderbolt generally has a total of a +8 bonus when using its missiles (?).

Yes. There is nothing in this section, or in any rule anywhere, to suggest otherwise.

The power cost icon for the Alanti Orbital Satellites' shield projectors is an error. The projector is powered from the shield generator as though it were another gravitic shield.

Just ignore the power cost icon.

What is a Light Combat Vessel, and when will we see one?

You will see them first in Raiders, Pirates & Privateers. They're bigger than a super-heavy fighter, but smaller than a medium ship.

What happens when an enormous base is hit by a weapon that permantly reduces armor ratings (Disruptor, Plasma Stream, Solar Cannon). Does this reduce all of the armor of that section, or only a "sub-armor" score for that particular system?

Just the particular system. You would be forced to keep track of each such system individually.

Thar'not'ak Cargo: What is the cargo transfer rate of the Thar'not'ak Plasma Cruiser?

1.

Drazi Brostilli Warbase: The Brostilli Warbase has different shuttles on the SCS than all other Drazi Units (with the stats of EA shuttles). Are those correct?

Obviously not. They should have the same stats as any other Drazi shuttles.

Abbai Kaltika: Just for clarification, does the Breaching Pods armor include the shield (like their fighter), as the text only says, that the defense ratings include the shield value?

The listed values include the shield.

Drazi FF Mine: The FF Mine lists a damage of 10, but no structure. I suppose it should read structure 10 instead?

It should say structure 10, as it scores no damage and is unarmed.

Vree Armed Shuttles: The Weapons on the Vree armed shuttles are a little confusing. They both have weapons with the same names as those used on the fighters, but listing totally different stats.

The text is incorrect. Use the value from the appropriate fighter for ALL purposes.

Or what is the Lgt Antimatter Cannons firing rate? 1 per 2 turns, like that of the Tzymm, or once per turn?

See above.

Brakiri Armed Shuttle: Is the range penalty of the Ultrlgt Graviton Pulsar -1 per hex as the normal GP (seems quite powerful for an armed shuttle of this price)?

It should be -2 per hex.

Gaim Tracha Troop Transport: The Tracha has no Bulkheads at all. Is this intentional (as on a troop transport, the Gaim onboard are more important than the destruction of a weapon) or an error?

This is correct. The ship does not have bulkheads.

Militaries of the League-1 Questions

Pak'ma'ra ships: What is the correct intercept rating for the plasma web?

All plasma webs should have a -2 intercept rating, like the one shown on the dreadnought. The others are listed with "n/a" in error.

Gaim boarding: The rules state that the Gaim are supposed to have advantages when using breaching pods, but no advantages are shown. What should they be?

Use the Narn bonuses. This was originally to be stated in the Earth Wars book, but was deleted when we moved that product ahead of League-1 in the schedule. We then managed to forget to update L1. Sigh.

Drazi Star Snake: Are the two Light Particle Blasters linked, as the SCS does not list them a linked?

They should be listed as linked.

Drazi Sky Serpent: The Particle Blaster fires independently of the other weapons, but the two Particle Guns are also NOT listed as linked. They probably are, but I just want to make sure.

As above, they should be listed as linked.

Heavy fighter weapons: Are the Sky Serpents Particle Blaster and the Vree Light Antimatter Cannon able to intercept like normal fighter weapons (at -1) or not at all (like the Ion Bolt)?

They may intercept, as there is no rule specifically saying they may not do so.

Strikehawk: The Strikehawk is described in the text as a variant of the Warbird, but there is no Rarity rating on the SCS.

It is Common.

Drazi Shuttles: Do Drazi shuttles/armed shuttles/... benefit from the Drazi Initiative Bonus of +2 (regarding all those units, that don't have their initiative explicitly listed)?

Yes.

Pak'ma'ra Shuttles: Do Pak shuttles/armed shuttles/... suffer from the general Init -1 penalty?

Yes.

Brakiri/Vree Shuttles: Do all Brakiri/Vree shuttles/armed shuttles/... have gravitic drives?

Yes.

Variants-2 Questions

Why do the gravitic mines score more damage the farther they are away from the target?

The mines set up shearing forces between themselves that pull against the target. The closer it is to the center of the effect, the greater the opposing forces; hence, the greater the damage.

The Brakiri Takata Mine Cruiser has armour rating of 5 on all its gravitic mines with exception of gravitic mine #1 which has an armour rating of 3. Is this correct or should it also have a rating of 5?

5 is correct.

The Drazi Jumphawk Command Cruiser lacks a jump delay (has Jump Delay: N/A on the sheet), what is its jump delay?

Does the Brakiri Pikitos use a gravitic drive? And does its light gravitic bolt fire in standard mode?

Yes to both questions.

Why does the Alykent Guardpost have a maneuvering rate chart and engine efficiency rating?

Because we forgot to remove them (oops).

Does the Vree Antimatter Saucer really have two structure blocks with different armor values?

Sorry, the front and back structure blocks should each have 4 armor.

How does the Antimatter Torpedo interact with Jammers?

The jammer halves the range AND doubles any range penalty of ballistic weapons, as explained in its rules. Thus, the range brackets for the torpedo are halved to 0-12, 13-25, and 26+ (-0 per hex, -1 per hex, and -2 per hex respectively) and then any penalty is doubled. So, if a torpedo is fired at a Minbari ship that winds up at range 21, the penalty is -9 doubled to -18 (ouch!).

Shadow War Questions

The shield values and defense ratings on the Vorlon Observation Post don't match. Which is correct?

The shields should be 5.

One of the scenarios lists 1 G'Quan followed by 14 more G'Quans. Is that a misprint?

Yes. The first one should be a G'Quonth.

The sensors on the Shadow Dreadnought don't have a power icon. Where is it?

The sneaky Shadows hid it next to the reactor.

The Ancients don't seem to use powered sensors. Is this correct?

Yes. They do not require power. If buying additional sensor points, they have a flat rate of 12 power per extra point. There should have been a rule explaining this in the book, but it was trimmed out for some reason.

The book mentions that the Molecular Slicer "can use piercing mode at higher arming levels", but the weapon stats don't give any details. If the Molecular Slicer can use piercing, than what arming level must it be at?

The slicer cannot use piercing mode. Most of the text explaining how this works was deleted, except for the phrase you mentioned above.

The book lists the base to hit of the vortex disruptor as 20, on the SCS it is 24. Which is correct?

24. We made the change when we updated the master weapons chart, but the main book had already gone to press.

What is the proper range penalty for the Lightning Cannon (Lt)? The Vorlon Heavy Cruiser SCS shows a -1 per 2 hex, while ALL of the other SCSs and the Master Weapons Chart from CotSs shows a -1 per hex penalty.

The Master Weapons Chart is correct. Apparently the updated chart was propagated to all the ships except the Heavy Cruiser.

In part of the playtest, the Shadows had gravitic drives. Are they still gravitic?

No, we removed this ability after a final review of reports and comments. They are already good enough as is.

The rules say the Shadows have an efficiency rating, but they don't. Should they?

No, the mention of that should have been deleted from the rulebook and was missed.

Where is the free thrust for Shadow ships?

It's in the bio-drives. Each drive produces the amount of thrust shown.

Raiders & Privateers Questions

There seems to be a mistake on the SCS for the Belt Alliance light gunboat. It is described as agile but has a cost of 1+! for both the pivot and roll cost. What is the correct cost for pivot and roll?

1 thrust.

Why does the Brakiri police ship use completely different assault shuttles and breaching pods to the Ikorta light assault cruiser?

These are two new units. There should have been a note to this effect.

Is the in-service date of the Llort raiding cruiser correct at 2215? The reason I ask is that I understood that the Narn did not develop the Mag cannon to recently, and I thought that the Dilgar did not develop scatter pulsars and quad pulsars until the Dilgar war? I would have thought that the correct in-service date would be around late 2230's.

This is a more recent version of the ship. The original was around in 2215, but this one did not show up until after the Dilgar War. The in service date should be somewhere around 2250.

The Vree Xvell Escort Freighter has a forward thruster armour rating of 4, all the others have a rating of 3, which is correct?

3. (I remember fixing this error. See below.)

The following ships have listed for their single particle beams a fire control bonus of +6 vs capital/HCV instead of the normal +4. I assume that this is a typo. Raider Schooner, Raider Felucca, Civilian Commercial Freighter, Civilian Fast Freighter, Civilian Tanker, Civilian Tug, Civilian Luxury Liner, Civilian Q-Ship.

Dammit, I remember fixing every one of these errors. They should all be +4, not +6. The files on my computer all say +4 as well. Somehow, the original faulty versions must have been the ones burned onto the CD. I am at a loss to explain this, but please ignore the +6.

What are the Deployment Limitations (as explained in Ships of the Fleet) for the ships in the Raiders & Privateers supplement?

They are all unlimited except as follows:

Dragonship - 33%

Missile Barge - 33%

BA Heavy Gunboat - 33%

Llort Govall - 33%

Llort Turlisk - 33%

Note that there are a variety of special deployment rules that apply to these ships as explained in either the ship or the race descriptions. For example, a Raider group cannot build jump-capable ships unless they have access to a supply of Quantium-40, and ordinary Raiders cannot build the specialty ships of the Independent Mercenaries League.

Dilgar War Questions

The Dilgar Tratharti has some stats that don't make sense. What are the correct values?

Those who have the original playtest pack know that it used to be an HCV. We changed it at the last minute. The main mistake is the initiative bonus, which should be +0. The side structure hits are also marked as forward structure for some unknown reason. Otherwise, it is correct.

Why does the Earth Nova (Alpha) have such powerful forward thrusters compared to its engine size?

Because we forgot to reduce them when we built this ship control sheet off the Beta model. They should be rated at 3's, not 4's, and each thruster should be short two boxes. The side thrusters are correct.

Where is the FCS for the Dilgar Jortava Breaching Pod?

It was supposed to be in Showdowns-4, but due to a printing error, the space where it was to appear was blank. I have provided it here and will attempt to include it in the next product with Dilgar units.

What are those things sticking up out of the Athraskala Bomber?

They are solar panels, targeting arrays, tracking antennas, or whatever else sounds good. :) Seriously, they were added by the artist to give the ship a unique flavor all its own. They have no specific purpose in the game. When building the miniature, you can either deploy them or glue them right into the hull, whichever way you prefer.

The text says you did not include counters for the Balosians, yet there are some on the countersheet! What's up with that?

The rulebook went to press three weeks before the countersheet. Between the time it went to press and the time we did the counters, we decided to include them (using just one of the many surface patterns the Balosians might employ). There was no way to go back and alter the rulebook at that point.

Tactics Guide Questions

The tactics referring to the Gravitic Mine seem to indicate the mines work out to 10 hexes. Is this correct?

Sorry, the article failed to mention that there must be a gravitic mine in the center of the 10-hex sphere, so that all mines are within 5 hexes of each other.

Wars of the Ancients Questions

What is the correct cost of the Vorlon Assault Fighter, and how many hangar spaces does it take up?

It should be 295 points, and it occupies two boxes. The Vorlons do not need a special catapult for it.

How much armor does the Mindrider Thought Projection have?

It has 2 points of armor in all directions.

What is the "weak ELINT" the Mindriders use?

That is its original name from the first draft of the book. It should be referred to as "constrained ELINT."

League-2 Questions

What is the proper rate of fire and available ammunition for the Class-D rack?

The description is correct. It launches one missile per turn and can use antimine, not flash, missiles.

What is the correct amount of ammunition for the class-F rack?

10 missiles.

What is the correct hit information for the Hurr Orak? In V5, you tried to correct it, but now the structure is unhittable.

What is the primary hit table for the Kor-Lyan Solyrn supposed to be. It's another HCV with structure not appearing on the primary hit location.

1-7: Primary Struct, 8-9: Port/Stb Thrust

Ditto for the Kor-Lyan Vaklar.

1-4: Primary Struct, 5-6: Port/Stb Thrust

What's the correct hit location for the Cascor Tacacci Strike Frigate? It doesn't look like a medium ship's damage chart.

You can see the correction to this by looking at the Talacca in V5. As you might expect, X-17 becomes structure on the Fwd/Aft charts and 1-X becomes Port/Stb Thrust on the primary chart.

Variants-4 Questions

What's the deal with the squares instead of zeroes?

When we sent the document to printer, they managed to replace all the zeroes with illegal characters when doing the font conversion. The square represents an illegal character. In some places, instead of a square there is nothing (e.g., page 10 says it is page 1 because the zero was dropped). Fortunately, this did not affect any of the ship sheets. As a strange aside, S7 and V4 were both printed simultaneously at the same print shop using the same machines, yet S7 does not have this problem. Figure that out.

Three of the ship sheets are too fuzzy to read!

Again, the print shop's fault. They printed those three, and only those three, at a lower resolution than the others. I am at a loss to understand why they did this, and why it was not caught (considering how blatantly obvious it is), but there you are. Anyway, if you click on this link, you can download PDF versions of these three ships which you can print at your leisure. We can't stop every printing error, but we can at least make it up to you afterwards!

Ships of the Fleet-2 Questions

Why are the Gaim, Narn, and Vorlon ship files missing from the CD?

The company that produced the CD managed to lose them, plain and simple. They were on our master CD, and this was confirmed by having the CD-makers read off the file names and do a file count before going to press. Yet, somehow, they aren't in the final product. *sigh* Anyway, you can download a ZIP file with the missing control sheets by clicking here.

Where are the Balosian Kraasus, Balosian Moesar, Brakiri Bashnar, and Gaim Tocrat pages?

Somehow, between the time the final version of this book was saved and the time it came back from the print shop, these four pages were dropped from the SOTF2 Pagemaker file. They were definitely in the original because a printed master copy includes them, yet they turned up blank in the final product (hence the blank pages in back). There's nothing we can do about this except apologize; at least the files for three of them are on the CD (the Tocrat can be downloaded from our site; see above question).

Why is the Mishakur-D printed twice in the book?

We can't tell if this is the print shop's fault or ours. I went through all the sheets on the printed master and matched them with their descriptions (ironically enough, to make sure nothing got left out) and should have caught a problem like this. However, since the Pagemaker file is already messed up and the printed master is now lost, I can't be sure whose mistake it really was. Regardless of that, the correct control sheet for the basic Mishakur can be found here.